Dravidianists Take Note: Dravidian Invasion Theory Gathering force

 

Dravidianists Take Note: Dravidian Invasion Theory Gathering force

Shrikant G. Talageri 

 

“Dravidianism” is the Breaking India Force which seeks to break/divide India on the grounds of Aryan-vs.-Dravidian. There are admittedly also a small number of “Aryanists” at the opposite end of the spectrum: those who insist the Dravidian languages are also descended from Sanskrit. But the core belief at the center of Dravidianist ideology is that the Dravidian languages were native to India (this part of it is true) but also that the “Aryan” (IE) languages (in the remote past, over 3500 years ago) entered a Dravidian India as the languages of invaders (this part of it is not true, and is based on pure invented theory, and has been disproved in detail by many writers, of which, need I point out, I am one).

But the seeds of a Dravidian Invasion Theory had also been planted long ago, and seem to be slowly gathering speed in recent times. Till now, the claim was that the Dravidian languages are related to the extinct Elamite language and in fact originated in the Elamite area (southwestern Iran and southern Iraq). I have already dealt with this baseless theory in many articles:

https://talageri.blogspot.com/2025/08/the-alleged-elamite-dravidian.html 

https://talageri.blogspot.com/2024/12/the-dravidian-invasionmigration-theory.html 

The DIT (“Dravidian Invasion Theory”) supporters who are also AIT supporters generally place the “Dravidian Invasion/Immigration” before the “Aryan Invasion”, thereby still making the “Aryans” invaders into a “Dravidian” India. But some of them, opponents of the AIT, actually bring the Dravidian languages (at least as immigrants, if not invaders) into an already “Aryan” India. Since it is not clear which languages, according to these particular Dravidian invasionists, were spoken in South India before the arrival of these “Dravidians”, it is not clear who (in terms of language) are the people of South India who were allegedly invaded (or linguistically supplanted) by the invading Dravidians, it is not clear if these invaders invaded “Aryans” or the speakers of some other unspecified language family.

 

But now, it looks as if the Dravidian invaders did not just come from comparatively closer Iran-Iraq: they came all the way from Africa (Sudan-Uganda, to be precise), and Elam in Iran-Iraq was just a temporary encampment on the way: 

https://x.com/NeilHD108

https://x.com/NeilHD108/status/1877204173139165641

“But Dravidian isn't having evidences of BEING LOCAL or even Asian origin, it came from Ilam area in southern Iran & even came further ahead from African Sudan-Uganda, entered south India from Kachh before splitting it in many branch, it is having links with African & Uralic group

9:32 AM · Jan 9, 2025

 

So this Dravidian invasion took place long, long ago, at some time after 10000 BCE!

So did the Aryans invade the Dravidians or did the Dravidians invade the Aryans? Neither of the two apparently, although both did invade (or immigrate into) India (shrewdly avoiding contacts with each other): though still no details about the earlier pre-Dravidian languages of South India!

https://x.com/NeilHD108

“Steppe origin of Aryans is true, the migration did happen. But none of R1aZ93 downstream lineages brought Indo-Aryan languages to India. There was an earlier wave of R1a migration, long before ghaggar stopped receiving its glacier-fed waters around 6k BCE”

1:27 PM · Nov 1, 2025

“And for Dravidian. No evidence of its presence either in IVC or deep south. In SriLanka you get pre Buddhist Brahmi, you find IA Sinhalese Prakrit in all Brahmi, but none in Tamil. If Dravidian already there, it should’ve reached island long before IA did”

1:38 PM · Nov 1, 2025

 

The linguistic evidence for all this African claptrap:

https://x.com/NeilHD108

https://x.com/NeilHD108/status/1863241831988994192

“Here's one interesting relationship between Tamil and Elamite (almost nothing) vs Dravidian Branches and Central African languages (distantly related) So, Dravidian is very less likely originated from Iran, Iran was just a junction point from its root travel from Sudan Africa”

8:50 PM · Dec 1, 2024

And he provides the following “genetic” charts (I neither know nor care for the source) to prove his linguistic claim:

 

8:50 PM · Dec 1, 2024

Note the disclaimers within the charts themselves!: How do they show that “Dravidian Branches and Central African languages” are “distantly related”, though they do indeed specifically state that “Tamil and Elamite are not related”?

 

But, on the basis of this, he confidently asserts that the Dravidian languages came into India from outside (and later, so did the “Aryan”/IE ones), though they did not “invade” one the other.

What is this “distant relationship”? Here, just for starters (I would welcome a more detailed analysis by anyone else showing this “distant relationship”), a look at Telugu and Mende numbers 1-100 from my article on numbers and numerals:

Telugu (Dravidian):

1-10: okaṭi, reṇḍu, mūḍu, nālugu, ayidu, āru, ēḍu, enimidi, tommidi, padi

11-19: padakoṇḍu, panneṇḍu, padamūḍu, padanālugu, padihēni, padahāru, padihēḍu, paddenimidi, pandommidi

tens 20-100: iruvai, muppai, nalubhai, yābhai, aravai, ḍebbhai, enabhai, tombhai, vandala

Other numbers: tens+unit. Thus 21: iruvai okaṭi,  99: tombhai tommidi

 

Mende (NigerCongo):

1-10: yira, fere, sawa, nani, lolu, woita, wofela, wayakpa, tau, pu

11-19: pu-mahũ-yira (10+mahũ+1) etc.

20, 40, 60, 80, 100: nu-yira-gboyongo, nu-fere-gboyongo, nu-sawa-gboyongo, nu-nani-gboyongo, nu-lolu-gboyongo

Other numbers: vigesimal + 1-19. Thus:

21: nu-yira-gboyongo mahũ yira (20+mahũ+1), 99: nu-nani-gboyongo mahũ pu-mahũ-tau (80+mahũ+19).

Is there any connection between these two: and if not in respect of numbers, then in respect of any other aspect of language?

 

I think someone should put a full-stop to this DIT rubbish, which is even more ridiculous than the AIT (since in the cae of the AIT we do at least have undeniably related languages far outside India), unless more credible linguistic evidence can be produced.

I would request Koenraad Elst to clarify the matter, since he is an opponent of the AIT, but is he also a supporter of the DIT? His reply to the above would seem to indicate this:

https://x.com/ElstKoenraad/status/1863226862580666645

“The Dravidian Immigration Theory had already been theorized decades ago (Elamite origin),& now genetics points the same way: from W Iran, where Elam was to come up, 8-6000y ago. Can also be reconciled w/ the Heggarty paper; Manu's bringing IE from there.”  

7:51 PM · Dec 1, 2024

And in reply to the following from https://x.com/NeilHD108

“Dravidian does preserve elements of African languages from Sahel belt as demonstrated by Bernard Sergent. It's presence as a single language is late to mainland India and it never reached IA heartland in the north, it moved Deccan and split into branches”.

1:48 PM · Nov 1, 2025

Koenraad replies:

https://x.com/ElstKoenraad

https://x.com/ElstKoenraad/status/1984612094050754870

“Thanks for this reference. I reported on Sergent's hypothesis in my book *Update on the Aryan Invasion Debate* (1999), but have since not followed up on it. At the time I doubted it, as Sergent included even languages from Senegal. But if they could reach India, why not Senegal?”

6:52 PM · Nov 1, 2025

Who are these people who “could reach India”, and on what basis is this being concluded or even speculated?

These matters should not be left hanging inconclusively in the air. They should be thrashed out – if there is indeed anything to be thrashed out!  – or else nipped in the bud.